Environmentally-Friendly Landscape Design & Organic Lawn | Mamaroneck, NY What are the dominant characteristics of your landscape? Do you have mature trees to accentuate, or a sunny area to take advantage of? What is your preference in terms of landscape styles, color etc.? I suggest you use Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and any other sources for ideas and particular images you like. In addition, a very important layer and consideration for design are the environmental considerations. How can we create a beautiful space that also provides ecological services, like filtering stormwater and allowing it to infiltrate to the aquifer; designing a front entry garden that also attracts pollinators; and fostering healthy soil microbial communities that break down nutrients and sequester carbon dioxide? Designing with Ecological Services in Mind In this case, new construction, compact soil, full sun and hardscape in front, and lots of shade and bare soil in rear were the existing conditions. The scope of work included a full-property ecological landscape design, natural-source soil amendments, organic lawn installation, perennial planting, irrigation, and marking out a footprint for a future vegetable garden. The above front-entry garden features bird-attracting ornamental grasses, including our native Panicum — also a known hero in carbon sequestration — as well as pollinator-attracting perennials like Nepeta and native Geranium. Above: Before photos of the backyard, pre-lawn installation. This lawn installation required quite a bit of premium topsoil and organic compost and amendments such as gypsum to rebuild the soil after intense compaction and disruption during the home’s construction. We followed Green Jay’s Magic Wand Program and the results speak for themselves! Above: organic lawn installation, plush and thriving! Special attention was given to creating a landscape that would grow and mature with the young family who would enjoy the evolution, development and changes in the landscape through the seasons and through the years. Contact us about your environmentally-conscious landscape design project! — Jay Archer Landscape Ecologist, Designer & President Green Jay Landscape Design 914-560-6570
